THE SENIOR police officer in charge at the scene of Stephen Lawrence's murder said yesterday that he initially believed that the victim's friend, another black teenager, might be responsible for his injuries. The light passes through the skin and is absorbed by the melanin in the hair and hair root, causing it to burn Patients report only a mild stinging. Eight 15-minute sessions are required for men with normal beards over six months. It should clear at least 70 per cent of the hair so subsequent shaving is easier and less frequent. However, it costs pounds 1,600 - enough to buy at least 30 years' worth of razor blades.Leading article, page 20Photograph: Adrian Dennis. However, as Nima, an Everest summiteer, said afterwards, understanding the words was not important, what matters is to believe..
Ben Stroud, a Reuters trader, is seeking an end to the daily shaving that consumes hundreds of hours in the lives of most men, writes Jeremy Laurance. Yesterday he started laser treatment on his face at the Harley Medical Group's City clinic which will permanently remove his facial hair Pulses of laser light are beamed at the face. THE WREN at the centre of a sex scandal which threatens the career of a senior officer was warned about the relationship by the Second Sea Lord, a court martial was told yesterday. Lieutenant Commander Karen Pearce told hearing at Aldershot, Hampshire, that she went into the office of Admiral Sir Jock Slater who said: "You are an attractive female, be careful." But she said that he was not aware of the full extent of her relationship with army Lieutenant Colonel Keith Pople and that they had not publicised it.Lt-Cdr Pearce, 34, is a key prosecution witness against Lt-Col Pople who is accused of having an affair with her while he was her superior in the office of the then Second Sea Lord.
Before arriving in Dingboche, we stopped at the Buddhist monastery at Pangboche, where a lama blessed our expedition.The lengthy service, with the lama chanting and banging a large cheese- shaped drum, was all in Tibetan, unintelligible not only to us, but also to the Sherpas. And Houdini's part in it?The great escapologist was the character whose name we tried to guess in a form of the Any Questions quiz that we played on our 750m climb. Dave Walsh, our guide, uses the game to stop groups from trying to ascend too fast. If you can talk, the pace is about right, and you do not become breathless.Health and acclimatisation are necessary obsessions with expeditions such as ours. "Is anybody crook?" was Sundeep Dhillon's first question at breakfast yesterday. As the team doctor, Sundeep, who serves with 23 Parachute Field Ambulance, has a very direct interest. He has already had to treat Rob Owen for a gut infection which left the London stockbroker an expert on the long-drop toilets of the Khumbu.
He is now fully recovered.Physicist David Calloway from New York also dosed himself with Biamox yesterday to clear an altitude headache.Besides the medical kit, we have also taken out more spiritual insurance. Altitude sickness can be a killer, and along with the weather is the biggest reason for climbers failing on high mountains.So my middle-aged body's ability to cope has been my biggest worry, the sort of thing the mind dwells on in the middle of the night in the lodges on the walk-in, when the snores and clumping to the rudimentary toilet keeps you awake.Yesterday's small milestone, when five of our group climbed to a rocky point at 5135m, above the Sherpa village of Dingboche, has not banished all my apprehensions about altitude, but it was a welcome fillip. All three of the guides and two of the clients have been above 8,000m - into the so-called death zone - and the others have all been above 6,000m.Had the addition of a journalist to the Everest team not appealed to Himalayan Kingdom's appetite for publicity, I would probably have been advised to try a more modest mountain trip for starters. The highest I had climbed before coming to the Himalayas was the summit of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps at 4,807m but not much more than half the height of Everest (8,848m). Everyone on our Himalayan Kingdom's expedition has climbed to far more impressive altitudes than me. The tourists were told on the last day they had been secretly filmed and gave permission to have the results broadcast.. THE GREAT Houdini yesterday took me to a personal altitude record in our expedition's preparation for the oxygen-thin air of Mount Everest.
Perhaps the biggest question mark over my chances on the Big One is my lack of high-altitude experience. But the film-makers also found some surprises: the normally restrained Japanese were as boisterous as the British, and the Americans spent much time trying to break the hotel's no-smoking rules. The organisers also tried to provoke reactions in the tourists by lacing their wine with vinegar to see who would send it back, organising a toga party and a sandcastle-building competition. The Britons were least worried about the actor stealing drinks while a barman's back was turned and joined in drinking them. The Japanese ostracised their supposed thief and came close to informing on him to the hotel.In some ways the tourists, matched to be the same age, class background and occupations, lived up to national stereotypes. If found guilty, he will be dismissed from the Army after a 20-year career.The hearing continues..